Southern Regional Education Board Cheryl Blanco, Vice President, Special Projects Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) Increasing Student Success: What is the Trustees’ Role? South Carolina Commission on Higher Education Trustees’ Conference Columbia, SC ~ September 29, 2009

Southern Regional Education Board What do we know about completion rates?

Southern Regional Education Board National Graduation Rate for Bachelor’s Degree Only 56% of students who entered a four- year institution in 2000 graduated six years later Source: Education Trust, College Results Online.

Southern Regional Education Board Bachelor’s Degree Graduation Rates in SREB States  SREB average is 52%  SREB states range from 71% to 37%  South Carolina’s average is 59%  Most SREB states have increased this rate between 1% and 8% Source: SREB, Fact Book on Higher Education, 2009, Table 40.

Southern Regional Education Board South Carolina – Bachelor’s Degree Graduation Rates, 1997 and 2006 Source: Ed Trust, College Results Online Web site.

Southern Regional Education Board Persistence Rates in SREB States  SREB persistence rate is 85%  SREB states range from 91% to 76%  Little change from 2001 – some states have dropped Source: SREB, Fact Book on Higher Education, 2009, Table 40.

Southern Regional Education Board What do we know about institutional success?

Southern Regional Education Board A Focus on Four-Year College Completion  What are institutions doing to ‘beat the odds’?  What can we learn from their successes?  How do, state, system, and institutional policies impact completion?

Southern Regional Education Board Criteria  Public baccalaureate degree granting  6-Year Graduation Rate: 45% or more  Pell Grant recipients: at least 25%  Median SAT: 1050 or less (ACT 22)

Southern Regional Education Board Institutions California: California State University-Long Beach California State University-Stanislaus Illinois: Western Illinois University Kentucky: Murray State University Western Kentucky University Mississippi: Delta State University Missouri: Northwest Missouri State University Nebraska: Wayne State College New Jersey: Montclair State University New York: CUNY-Queens College CUNY-College of Staten Island North Carolina: Elizabeth City State University North Carolina Central University Pennsylvania: Clarion University of Pennsylvania Texas: Sam Houston State University

Southern Regional Education Board Attentive Leadership  Institution-wide priority  It’s everyone’s responsibility  Visible keystone initiative  Collaboration - breaking down the silos  Faculty engagement  Institution-wide group on retention and completion  Departmental role

Southern Regional Education Board Focus on Individual Student Needs – Academic and Personal  Clear sense of what’s expected and staying on course  Direct learning support  Learning communities and affinity groups  Orientation and first-year programs

Southern Regional Education Board What can Trustees do?

Southern Regional Education Board Why should Trustees care about completion?  Alum are greater assets than dropouts are  Persistence is more cost effective than recruitment  Enhance student success  Enhance institutional success

Southern Regional Education Board What can Trustees do?  Make higher graduation rates an institutional priority  Encourage and support retention policies and programs  Examine institutional data and peer data and ask questions – Who drops out? Why?  Explore use of institutional financial aid as a retention and graduation strategy  Keep informed on national and state policies

Southern Regional Education Board Questions  What are the graduation rates at your institution?  What are acceptable rates?  Are there state or system policies in South Carolina to help your institution reach acceptable rates?  How do you make your institution accountable for its graduation rate?  Does your institution have the resources—human, fiscal, and physical—to achieve higher graduation rates?  Where can institutional policy and practice make a difference? Developmental education? Financial aid?